Need Interceptor

zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#1
Just lost two colonies and I'm pretty sure its red bugs. Anybody have some?

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Andrew_bram

Tiger Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
Just curious what makes you think its red bugs. How did you lose he colonies. Was it rapid or has this been over a prolonged period of time.

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zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#3
Haven't tracked down a pest yet, but two separate colonies had blotchy tissue loss like something was eating the skin off of them and the two colonies went from a few white spots yesterday to 90% tissue loss today. Three other colonies are now showing some white spots. Could also be flatworms possibly.

Tested parameters yesterday and ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate was 0ppm, 0.08 phosphate, 8 dKH, pH 8.1, 450 Ca, 1350 Mg, 35ppt salinity, temp 79. There is a bit of an algae bloom because I started AWC back up two weeks ago after 3 weeks of fluconazole treatment to remove bryopsis with no water changes.

The only things that changed recently was I replaced by GFO and carbon a week ago and did a 4 gallon water change to flush out the fines. Four weeks ago, I grabbed a disney frag and it did the same thing and was promptly removed, but no other corals were affected then.

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Andrew_bram

Tiger Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#4
Haven't tracked down a pest yet, but two separate colonies had blotchy tissue loss like something was eating the skin off of them and the two colonies went from a few white spots yesterday to 90% tissue loss today. Three other colonies are now showing some white spots. Could also be flatworms possibly.

Tested parameters yesterday and ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate was 0ppm, 0.08 phosphate, 8 dKH, pH 8.1, 450 Ca, 1350 Mg, 35ppt salinity, temp 79. There is a bit of an algae bloom because I started AWC back up two weeks ago after 3 weeks of fluconazole treatment to remove bryopsis with no water changes.

The only things that changed recently was I replaced by GFO and carbon a week ago and did a 4 gallon water change to flush out the fines. Four weeks ago, I grabbed a disney frag and it did the same thing and was promptly removed, but no other corals were affected then.

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I would look for additional cause of your loss. What you describe is not indicative of red bugs. Imo. Is your tank ultra low nutrient. Have you had a change flow. Did you abruptly stop the algaecide treatment.

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Andrew_bram

Tiger Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#5
Also have you params been the same for months even through the treatment for bryopsis.

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zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#6
Params have been pretty stable. Phosphate has slowly dropped from 0.16 to 0.08 over the past month and calcium has risen from 430 to 450 since my dosing tuning was a smidge off. KH and Mg have been dead steady.

Flow has been steady with the same flow patterns I have been using for the last 3 months with great growth. Pumps cleaned about once a month.

The fluconazole was dosed once at recommended levels about a 5 weeks ago. Carbon was stopped the whole 3 weeks, no skimming for 3 days, and WC stopped. 2 weeks ago, I resumed AWC of 1.5% per day. 1 week ago I put changed GFO and put carbon back on line, and did a 4 gal water change to remove fines.



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Andrew_bram

Tiger Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#7
To me it sounds like if there is an absence of pest that it has something to do with water chemistry. Do you have a picture of your bryopsis. Just trying to help you dissect the causation.

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aquarius

Blenny
M.A.S.C Club Member
#8
I lost a few sos and several euphyllia when I did the same thing with fluconazole. Red bugs are pretty easy to see visually if you look for them. Aefw not so much but enough come off in a 1.25x dose of coral except pro that you’ll know if they’re there or not.
 

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#9
I have some if you really want to treat, but it is a bad idea unless you are sure that you have them. They are not hard to see.

Most of the time, red bugs will not kill stuff, just irritate them with bad color and growth. I guess that they could finish off an otherwise unhappy/unhealthy colony.
 

zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#10
To me it sounds like if there is an absence of pest that it has something to do with water chemistry. Do you have a picture of your bryopsis. Just trying to help you dissect the causation.

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The bryopsis was eradicated within a couple days of the fluconazole treatment. Don't have a pic, but it was definately bryopsis.

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zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#11
I have some if you really want to treat, but it is a bad idea unless you are sure that you have them. They are not hard to see.

Most of the time, red bugs will not kill stuff, just irritate them with bad color and growth. I guess that they could finish off an otherwise unhappy/unhealthy colony.
I more or less wanted to find a line on some in case I found any bugs. If I can trace any down, I will hit you up, but at this point it sounds like either flatworms or the carbon removing the fluconazole pissed them off reeeealy bad.

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zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#12
I lost a few sos and several euphyllia when I did the same thing with fluconazole. Red bugs are pretty easy to see visually if you look for them. Aefw not so much but enough come off in a 1.25x dose of coral except pro that you’ll know if they’re there or not.
I grabbed a the two colonies and did a cold FW dip and didn't see any come up. Haven't tried dipping any of the colonies that just have a few spots yet.

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jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#13
Don't rule out that the Fluconazole did some damage - just remember for next time. I know that lots of people think that it is "perfectly safe" but if it can kill algae in the tank, then it can harm algae in a coral, as well. I fear that we do not know enough about it to know for sure.
 

ReefCheif

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
Platinum Sponsor
#14
Flucanozole can and will cause coral die off. Ive used it on numerous maintenance accounts and have lost something after every treatment. My experience has been LPS, specifically torches but I have lost SPS as well. Ive also noticed its important to get that shit out of your system once its done its job, large water change and running carbon are key after a fluc treatment.

I think I have some interceptor laying around somewhere if you really think its red bugs.
 

zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#15
Flucanozole can and will cause coral die off. Ive used it on numerous maintenance accounts and have lost something after every treatment. My experience has been LPS, specifically torches but I have lost SPS as well. Ive also noticed its important to get that shit out of your system once its done its job, large water change and running carbon are key after a fluc treatment.

I think I have some interceptor laying around somewhere if you really think its red bugs.
Good to know. The weird part is that everything was happy, spry, and growing during the treatment. It wasn't until after water changes resumed and carbon went back online that coral got pissed.

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Andrew_bram

Tiger Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#16
Good to know. The weird part is that everything was happy, spry, and growing during the treatment. It wasn't until after water changes resumed and carbon went back online that coral got pissed.

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Is it possible that when algae died and was removed that to many nutrients were removed and water became polished to fast. With alk being 8 it burned corals. Case in point I noticed when running biopellets to high of alk(above about 7.5) with low nutrients kills sps over night.

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jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#17
GAC is not as aggressive as carbon dosing. Even if this did happen, I would guess that the corals were weakened by the treatment first and the GAC was the final blow. Water polishing with GAC does not kill healthy corals.
 
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